Owepowe Summer Camp Bear - A budget miracle?
*Disclaimer – This pad was sent to me by OwePowe. Everything in this review is my own personal opinion, and OwePowe had no involvement or influence in it, nor did they see this review before it was published*
I’ve had this pad for a week and I have been thoroughly impressed by both its performance and quality. Before I get into my personal opinions I would like to start off with the facts:
Games tested in: AimLabs, Rainbow 6 Siege, Valorant
Mice tested with: RAWM ES21 PRO, Sprime PM1, Asus Rog Keris 2 Ace
Price – $37
Speed – Medium Fast
Size – 490*420*4mm
Surface – Cloth (Nylon+Spandex)
Base – Polyurethane foam
Hardness – Soft
Packaging
The Owepowe Summer camp bear comes in flat-packed in two layers of packaging, the first one being made of cardboard, and the second layer being significantly more durable, possibly intended for long-term use compared to the disposable carboard. The Second layer features a turquoise design with OwePowe labelled on it, with two sets of Velcro dots on the rear ensuring the re-usable aspect of the packaging.
Although I probably won’t be taking advantage of the reusable packaging, I appreciate OwePowe for designing the packaging to be capable of long-term use.
Quality
Stitching:
The Stitching on this pad is done exceptionally well, not Artisan level, but at a level there where the stitching is functionally no different. The stitching is done in a neat manner below the surface, its very smooth and feels nice against the skin, I have not experienced any irritation. I’m a big fan of this stitching and I have no complaints for it, there haven’t even been any signs of fraying. Honestly this level of Stitching is impressive at the price of $37, it’s better than other more expensive pads I own, for example my Quaoar Pads experience minor fraying, and so did my X-raypad AC 2 while this OwePowe pad does not.
Base:
The Polyurethane foam base is soft with enough give for me to comfortably use the softness for additional mouse control and nicely complements the speed of the pad with more stopping power.
The grip of the base seems to be the weakest part of this pad, and considering its price its still great. During my use it had very minimal if any movement, but it’s not a sticky as a Poron base available on more expensive pads. I’d say it has a similar grip to the Rogers Poron base used by Quaoar.
A way to make the pad significantly grippier is to wipe the surface of the desk where you intend to use the pad with a damp cloth. The moisture will make the pad significantly grippier to the point where it wont move at all.
I have also experienced a minor issue, I am nit-picking at this point, but the pad near the corners does not lay fully flat, this affects only a very small amount of the surface, and did not affect its gaming performance in any ways, as it had a barely noticeable bend, and it was only in a small area near the corners, an area which I would rarely use the mouse. I have contacted other owners of this pad and it seems I have gotten a lucky copy.
Other user report not having this issue on their copy at all, or having it to a significantly lesser extent than me. Although this issue did not affect my performance at all, and is just a nit-pick, it’s something Owepowe can improve on. I have contacted OwePowe regarding this issue. Owepowe said that there have not been any reports of this yet, and addressed this issue by stating they will look into this and ensure its not an issue in future production.
Overall the softness of the pad worked great for me, while the grip is fine, it can be enhanced with some moisture to match the grip of the more expensive poron bases.
Surface:
The OwePowe summer Camp Bear is a fast pad with a smooth surface. As far as fast pads go, its on the slower side. It’s noticeably slower than something like an Artisan Hien and Hien clones such as the Zowie G-TFX or Razer Strider. A pad which has the most similar speed to Summer Camp Bear would be the Quaoar Oceanus, although the OwePowe is significantly smoother, and slightly faster.
I’ve mained both the Artisan Hien, and Artisan Zero, and the OwePowe Summer Camp bear is a nice middle ground between them. I do think that if you use either the Zero in Soft/mid (I do think if you main an xsoft zero you may want more control) or a Artisan Hien, you will be comfortable with the Owepowe Summer Camp bear. It has enough control for Zero users to use comfortably after some adaptation, and for hien users it still has a lot of freedom of movement.
Personally I really enjoy using this pad, its pleasant to use with its smooth surface, it’s fast giving me a lot of easy freedom of movement, and has good enough stopping power especially with the soft base for me to perform well in tac shooters.
Conclusion
This mousepad is fantastic, I can highly recommend it to anyone whose looking for a great budget cloth mousepad with a medium – fast speed. Would I recommend this to someone who wants the most premium pad ever? – no. But, if you aren’t able to spend more on a pad with a more premium base, it can’t OwePowe Summer camp bear is a top choice. Everything about this pad has been great, the only thing that can improve is the base from Polyurethane to a better material, although for $37 you cant get much better than what the Summer camp bear already provides.
Pros:
– stitching
– surface
– price
– packaging
Cons:
– base (This pad has been overall excellent in all aspects, although for the price this base is great, the one thing keeping it from being perfect is a more premium base (which may involve a higher price) , as well as potentially addressing the laying flat nit-pick )
My rating: 4.75/5
I’ve been intensively testing this pad for a relatively short period of time, if I find any durability issues I will make sure to edit this post or leave a comment.
